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Siddhartha Sparknotes

Satisfactory Essays

Raven Fletcher
Pre AP English 2
August 12, 2014
P4

The book begins in a village in ancient India. The main character, Siddhartha, is destined for greatness because he has mastered the ways of his religion very young. Siddhartha believes the Brahmins of his religion have done what they are expected to do, but have not reached enlightenment. This leads him to leaving the village and traveling with the Samanas in search of the meaning of life. He travels with them for 3 years, along with his friend, Govinda. He believes he has become as enlightened as possible with the Samanas, and he and his friend leave in search of Gotama, a man rumored to be enlightened and teaching others. Once there, Govinda quickly and completely accepts the teachings of Gotama, but Siddhartha rejects him as his teacher and goes to reach enlightenment without a teacher. Siddhartha aimless wanders around for a while, truly seeing the world for the first time. He meets Kamala and asks her to teach him about love. She requires gifts to give her services; so Siddhartha goes to work with a businessman and becomes good at it quickly. After a long time of living in the city he looks and acts live a rich merchant and no longer had any spiritual enlightenment, only a desire for physical objects. He leaves once again, depressed and suicidal. He passes out by the river and wakes …show more content…

On the way there Kamala gets bit by a snake and is brought to Siddhartha by her son, she uses her time she had left to tell him her son is his as well. Siddhartha keeps his son with him, but he is not interested in the lifestyle. His son makes life hard, and then runs away. Siddhartha goes after him all the way to the city, which brings back memories, and he realizes he must let his son go as his father did. He is very sad and meditates for many days, but realizes life has an inevitable flow and with this finds new

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